If you started a workout program at the start of January, you should be finished up right now and are probably deciding what to do next. I did my BAXX2 Hybrid for the first 90 days of 2013, and I am embarking on my next 90 days right now. I’m going to do a full article tomorrow detailing the Beachbody hybrid I’ve created to take me through the months of April/May/June. I call it my “Beast – Cardio Hybrid”. Tune in tomorrow to learn more!

Let me interject right now and say that if you haven’t done a workout program all the way through, don’t start with a Beachbody hybrid. I prefer hybrids because I can tailor the lifting and cardio to meet my specific goals. But if you haven’t gone through an initial program as designed, you really need to do that first to get a good foundation of fitness and to know how the programs work with your body. Ladies should consider Chalean Extreme. Guys should consider Power 90 or P90X depending on what you can handle to start. I feel like those 3 programs provide the BEST overall combination of resistance training, cardio HIIT training, core work, and a solid nutrition plan. If you haven’t done a program yet, be sure you check out my article on “choosing the right workout program”.

Now for those of you who have knocked out a round of P90X, Insanity, etc., let’s talk about what YOU might want to consider in creating a Beachbody hybrid for yourself as you move forward from here.

Creating a Beachbody hybrid is one of the most enjoyable things you can do with Beachbody programs. You can really make a custom program that is tailor-made for your goals. Each and every program has certain strengths and weaknesses as you look at their workouts. By combining the specific strengths of multiple workouts you can create a killer Beachbody hybrid that might just may be better than any of the original programs by themselves. Beachbody knows this and has included hybrids in many of their newer programs (Asylum, X2, TurboFire…). Those pre-made hybrids can be found on Team Beachbody in WOWY and in the Worksheets page.

There are a lot of things to consider when you get into designing a hybrid. You want to know each program well enough, down to the individual workouts, so that you can place workouts in order that will help you reach your goal but not leave you injured or over-trained. I have made a bunch of hybrids over my 3+ years of doing Beachbody programs. You can easily start with one of my hybrids as a backbone for your own Beachbody hybrid program. Complete list of my hybrids can be found here: My Hybrid Worksheets/Calendars

Considerations Before You Begin Creating Your Beachbody Hybrid

As I mentioned above, you really need to know your programs well to make an effective Beachbody hybrid. Like I said above, I recommend completing a program as it’s designed before utilizing it in a hybrid. The place where I’ve made an exception to this rule is with a program like Insanity. I’ve never completed a pure round of Insanity because I don’t feel it best meets my goals (too much cardio and not any real weight training). If you don’t know all the individual workouts that you plan on using in your hybrid you won’t know what muscle groups those workouts hit and if the order you’re placing them in is realistic and doable.

If you are really familiar with the program you can also use the standard order and placement of workouts as a guide for where to place them in your Beachbody hybrid. All the Beachbody programs have made careful considerations as to where to place workouts and how much rest you should get before similar workout.

You also need to know what your overall goal for your hybrid is. This will help you determine the balance of lifting to cardio and and even what programs you want to pull workouts from. For most of my hybrids my goal has been to lift heavy, maximize cardio, and still hit abs hard. So if you want some good ideas based on my past hybrids, feel free to check them out in the FREE DOWNLOADS section.

Lifting and Muscle Groups

If you’re going to have a lot of lifting in your Beachbody hybrid (more than three days a week) then you should really be aware of what muscle groups you’re hitting with your lifting days. You want to utilize the 48 hour. For instance, if you were to lift biceps Monday then the soonest you could lift them again would be Wednesday (and if you are doing back on Monday, the biceps will automatically also be used in the back workout on pullups and rows, so you can’t work biceps until at least Wednesday). These considerations will be really important if you’re going to try something like hitting each muscle group twice a week.

Also pay attention to total body lifting workouts. You really shouldn’t put another lifting days directly before or after these workouts. Just keep that in mind if you’re going to use any Les Mills PUMP workouts, Asylum Strength, Body Beast total body, etc.

Cardio

You have a little more freedom to put cardio workouts closer together. Yes a lot of the Beachbody cardio workouts will have some body weight lifting exercises, but they aren’t as targeted as a dedicated lifting workout. For example, you will do some push-ups in Speed & Agility but nowhere near the amount you would do in Chest and Back from P90X. If you’re really concerned then you can simply repeat the cardio exercise prior to the lifting exercise rather than doing the pushup sequence in Speed & Agility.

Programs

I’m not going to break apart every single program and all the individual workouts, but I will give a quick overview of many of the popular programs to use and hybrids. Let’s take a look!

P90X - the lifting workouts are self-explanatory (Chest/Back, Shoulders/Arms, etc). How they are paired in the phases should be a clue as to how you should pair them (C/B with S&A and CST with B/Bi). Plyo is still a good cardio option, and for all you yoga junkies… Nothing’s longer than YogaX :-)

P90X2- the Foundation phase lifting workouts are really total body workouts, so space them accordingly. The Strength phase workouts can be used the same as the P90X lifting workouts. The PAP workouts from the Performance phase are good upper and lower body splits (PAP Lower is a nice legs option). Again with X2, Plyocide is a great cardio option. X2 Yoga is good for a shorter yoga routine. Finally, maybe the most unique work out from P90X2 is Recovery and Mobility. Great to throw in to make sure you’re taking care of your body.

Tony Horton 1-on-1s – TONS of great routines here. My favorites are: the 30-15 Routine (chest and back), Just Arms (bi/tri/forearm), and Diamond Delts (Shoulders). Fountain of Youth yoga is a nice shorter (45 min) routine. Definitely worth a look if you are trying to get into yoga more.

Insanity – Pretty obvious that you are going to get GREAT cardio options from Insanity. Go all out with MAX workouts or even set the early phases up with Pure Cardio and Plyo Cardio Circuit and work up to the MAX workouts.

The Asylum Volume 1 - Vertical Plyo may be one of the toughest workouts Beachbody has ever made. Great for getting the most out of your cardio days. As mentioned before, Asylum Strength is a good total body lifting option. Speed & Agility would be another great choice for cardio. If you really want to amp up your cardio use Game Day. Relief is nice for quick stretch.

The Asylum Volume 2 -Here lifting days are broken into Upper Elite (primarily chest and arms) and Back & Six Pack (primarily back). X Trainer, Power Legs, and Championship are great cardio choices.

Body Beast –Simple to use and a great addition to any hybrid. Build workouts are almost all multi-muscle group and then the Bulk workouts are single muscle groups. Build: Legs and Bulk: Legs should be the obvious answer to building your legs. There are no better leg workouts for size. And don’t overlook throwing in Beast Cardio. A quick 30 minute option that is a rocker if you really push the pace and weights.

Les Mills PUMP – Stick with the longer lifting workouts and find the right weight for your barbell to really get the Rep Effect. Pump & Shred, Pump Extreme, and Pump Revolution would be nice on a Saturday for a total body option that will still burn TONS of calories like cardio.

There are tons of other options I haven’t even touched, within the programs above and in other programs. If you are familiar with Les Mills COMBAT for example, use it in your Beachbody hybrid. If you can’t get enough TurboFire or ChaLEAN, make them fit and have fun!

I like making my Beachbodyhybrid calendars in an Excel document so then I can print them and post them in my workout room. That way you’ll have your plan right in front of you all the time. Below is a link to blank document. Get creative and keep pushing your limits. Bring it!

Hi Wayne ... well, you spelled it out very well regarding what not to do right before a full-body workout, but let me try anyway.

In past P90X hybrids, I've dumped the Legs and Back for a full-body workout for my third lift day. I'm starting a mini round of P90X on Monday before X3 comes out. However, I want to keep Legs and Back this time around, but I still want to keep the full-body workout meaning 4 lift days.

I'm building a hybrid and just wanted your opinion on something. I basically intend to do a Mon - Sat as follows: Lift; Cardio & Abs; Lift; Cardio & Abs; Lift; Abs.

My absolute favourite from P90X is Core Syn so I wanted that in as a Cardio day however I was wondering if: firstly it's too much to double that up with Abs on the same day do you think (although it would be Core Syn in the AM and Abs in the late PM); and secondly if, strictly speaking, Core Syn counts as a proper cardio day?

Hi coach, question - I'm on day 72 p90x, female, with fat to lose, got some great results, shrunk 2 sizes, and now I'm trying to figure out what to do next. I have about 20 lbs to lose, considering combat or Charlene extreme, or lean p90x - what is your opinion? Have knee issues and jumping is difficult so I'm worried about insanity.

Hey coach, I'm starting insanity on Monday and was just wondering how do I incorporate the upper body workout? I've done the p90x/insanity hybrid but I really want to focus on cardio without losing too much muscle. Also can I add pull-ups to the mix?

Hey coach, long time no see! :)I finish my round on the 29th and I'm moving to a new place on May 15 so I don't want to start a new round until then so I can take advantage of the first floor location of the new place with Insanity cardio days (about time!). So what do you recommend for a good two week hybrid until then? Thanks. I don't have X2 and Body Beast yet so just P90X, P90X +, Insanity, and some One on Ones if that helps. Thanks!

@CoachWayne Great article coach, it may have answered some of the questions I asked on the BAXX hybrid post but I'd still appreciate your views on my goals. As I said, not hanging around, still re-running P90x/Insanity hybrid whilst I decide on my hybrid split.

Wayne, just finished your BAXX2 workout although the last month was disappointing due to the fact that I caught a bad virus and had to do breathing treatments. I want to do an Insanity hybrid next that has four cardio days and two strength days. Need to burn some BF and get ready for triathlon season. Any suggestions for the strength workouts? I have all of the programs expect for Les Mills pump. Thanks.

Wayne, what is your take transition or recovery weeks? I have complete two rounds of X and an X2 round, a x/x2 hybrid, and combat. Currently, I have just finished up week three of an X2/A2 hybrid. I don't feel worn down or in need of a full recovery week. I know X2 gives lots of leeway for planning phases. Am I safe considering an X2 foundation week as a "recovery week" since I am use to pushing it?

This a great breakdown coach, of all the different programs and thanks for the blank Calendar. Man everyone keeps talking about body beast I may have to give it a try! Did you go through the full program of body beast too before doing it in your hybrid? The only thing that's kept me from doing body beast is that my focus has always been functional fitness and I didn't want to lose it with a 100% beast schedule.

@Mark Gandy I think you could add one to P90X on Saturday in place of Kenpo. Full body workouts won't hit any one muscle group really hard, so you should be safe. Make sure you take a full rest day each week and don't skip your recovery weeks. Go for it!

@TerrellCalloway1 Looks good. The only thing I would swap are PlyoX and Power Legs. I think you will get more out of Power Legs being fresh earlier in the week. Use PlyoX as cardio fro Saturday. Nice work.

@PJs I would give Chalean a chance. It's great strength training like P90X (just a little shorter and no pull ups). Weight lifting is really powerful for changing your body. Keep your nutrition dialed in and you can hit those goals with a round of CLX!

@AustinBoles If you are looking to lose weight, stick to P90X Classic and nail your nutrition. Kenpo and plyo are both better cardio options than 30 minutes on an elliptical. If you want to up your cardio game, get Insanity or an Asylum volume.

Michael, how's it going? For two weeks you could really just mix in what you like and make it up as you go. Just be mindful of your muscle groups and give them enough rest. You can follow a typical structure such as:

@gcooke7 I think training blocks can really be anywhere from 3-6 weeks and be fine. X2 was great for that and recommended that. If you are feeling good, keep going. But even if yo uare still feeling good at 6 weeks, I would take a recovery week. Foundation would work well for recovery. Even a week of Beast with really light weights could be considered a recovery week. Bodybuilders often call it a "deloading."

@CoachGaston I loved Beast. I did the whole program (a lot of starting and stopping due to travel). You will still be functional. Lifting is lifting. The rep schemes are just designed for maximum hypertrophy. If you want to add one cardio day to keep your cardio, that would be fine.

@CoachWayne@TerrellCalloway1 Okay, sounds good. I was also thinking of putting pure cardio in there somewhere...maybe in place of power legs or plyo x since plyo x would be right after legs and back. You know?

Coach, just curious as to why Kenpo and plyo are necessarily better options than the elliptical? I can burn 700-1000 calories on the elliptical in an hour. Although I don't get as out of breath as plyo, it's still a great sweat. Also, I thought the ellipticals I used to work out on were not accurate, but over the years I've been on 3 or 4 different models and they all estimate the same calories. Just curious to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

@CoachWayne , thanks for simplifying both systems. You make things so easy. Also wanted to get your thoughts on loosing weight, I'm thinking of using your Fat Shredder, but what would you recommend as caloric deficit for someone who is 5'7'?

@CoachWayne@apacheco3090 I was planing on following the insanity schedule, I'm just not sure which days to do the UBWT. Do I double up or do I sub out one of the insanity workouts. For instance on pure cardio or plyo circuit day, do I do UBWT after or do I sub it out for that workout?

@xvampx I'm with you guys on this - the original ARX is the one ab workout that I really 'feel' the next day. The lifting workouts in X2 are what really got the job done for my abs though. All of the pull-up and chin-ups in that program make your back get super strong, so your core can't help but keep up. Then with X2 you get the added core work with all of the focus on stability and balance. I was so glad I did X2 before the Beast, because as Wayne mentioned - you have to engage your core to keep good form, and X2 really helped me with that.

@xvampx Aaron is on. I like the original ARX, but none will disappoint. Cardio abs from Insanity is a great option. As for Beast and ab work, when we asked Sagi that in our teamRIPPED Beasts group he wasn't worried. If you are lifting heavy during Beast, you have to engage your core. There is no way to lifting heavy weights with good form during any leg routine without a solid core.

@AustinBoles Plyo will especially burn more calories post workout. It will spike your HR more than steady state cardio and will have more benefit for muscle building/maintaining. With an elliptical you burn 700 and are done. With more intense workouts, HIIT, you will burn even more post workout.